Here's one of the solar towers they're putting out in the CA desert. From what I understand, this isn't a photo voltaic site meaning this solar site has no solar panels. Instead, it will have reflectors all around it that will concentrate solar energy to the top of that tower.

I thought maybe it would be at the top of that tower where the solar energy would be converted to electricity, but nope. Again, I may have this completely wrong, but from what little I researched it is a solar steam tower. The reflectors heat the tower, that heats water, that creates steam, that powers generators, that generates electricity.

Current cost of the Ivanpah Solar farm is around 2.5 Billion. There will be a total of 5 solar sites in that area. The one pictured here is the most complete and if the panels are supposed to surround the tower, there are only about 5% of the panels in place. 2.5 Billion and nowhere near finished. That's a lot of money to serve the needs of a small population of Southern California. The estimated cost is the Keystone Pipeline is 2-5 billion. Every american would benefit from that. How does that solar farm make sense?

Last picture for now. I wish I had some cool pictures to share, but we never reached our goal for the day. We were trying to make our way past Christmas Mine to the New Year Mine. Just around that corner is a 20 foot waterwall. There are footholds here and there.

Not a technical climb at all, but I wasn't sure there would be anywhere at the top to slip rope for the way down. I'm sure I could have found somewhere up there to anchor the rope, but rope is expensive. I would want to slip it over something so we could double rope down and just pull a single rope to retrieve it.

20 feet doesn't sound that high, but it is when you're looking down. People have died falling far less. I'd rather not risk my wifes life.

I'll have to research it more. I read there were other ways to that mine, but from what I saw on site, the other ways would have to cross deep valleys.

We did find a few other trails not on any of our maps, so there's still plenty to explore out there.

Current cost of the Ivanpah Solar farm is around 2.5 Billion. There will be a total of 5 solar sites in that area. The one pictured here is the most complete and if the panels are supposed to surround the tower, there are only about 5% of the panels in place. 2.5 Billion and nowhere near finished. That's a lot of money to serve the needs of a small population of Southern California. The estimated cost is the Keystone Pipeline is 2-5 billion. Every american would benefit from that. How does that solar farm make sense?

It doesn't make any sense. Just like making a massive deal for oil in South America makes no sense.

Yeah, sorry Andrew... Made the choice solely on the pocket book hoping that it wouldn't be a case of you get what you pay for. First impressions... I'm stoked!!! Had to do about 30 minutes or so customizing some stuff so that I could get my gates open again but not a big deal at all. One of them the dirt was too high to let it swing open. The other one is motorized and the track was buried. I've got an idea to possibly put some blocks in there to help with future dirt working it's way back in there all the time. Anyways, some pictures of what I came home to. This morning it was all dirt, weeds and crab grass.

Looks like they did a good job. If I ever have a yard that needs rock landscaping, I know plenty of tailing piles with uniform sized rocks that I could use. It'll take a while getting enough back, but I'm out there anyway. Gotta save any way I can.

I paid $100 for the basslink I bought off craigslist and once I got it working I'm stoked with that purchase!!!

As far as the ivanpah solar field. I went to 3 different BLM and land meetings opposing the projects out there and for the first time ever the greenies were on our side too. It was impressive the amount of info they dig up and went at them with. While we're there saying we oppose it cause we recreate on it they show up spouting legit hard hitting facts. The solar farm guy talked about how much labor and income it would bring to the area. The greenies stand up and dispute it saying that in previous projects the same company had brought in an outside labor force from south america to do all the labor. They then said that similar sized facilities were staffed by as little as 10 people and typically at the most 40. They also said that all the energy would be going to socal as well. So basically it would benefit the surrounding area (las vegas) virtually nothing. They then went into the amount of land used, the impact, the turtles, etc... They closed with that the solar fields typically had a lifespan of about 10-15 years and they questioned what the companies plans were at that point. If they'd just walk away and leave it barren skeleton of a solar plant in the desert or what. The representative had no info/reply to that one...

The land meetings are pretty interesting and can get down right comical when it opens to public statement. I never spoke, just left a written comment but it's the only way you can really see what's going on. The whole stateline/jean area has some interesting proposals on the maps that's for sure!